


The Haunting of Hackerspace

by itsalwayssunnyit



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Flirting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Haunting, M/M, Romance, Unresolved Sexual Tension, horror movies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:28:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28386999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsalwayssunnyit/pseuds/itsalwayssunnyit
Summary: In which Marcus and Wrench are tiptoeing into romance, but weird shit starts happening every time they're about to venture into more intimitate territory.“Poltergeist,” Wrench wisely declares. The suspicious-looking dashes on his mask suddenly shift to exclamation marks, then, and he adds, “Cockblocking poltergeist!”
Relationships: Marcus Holloway/Wrench (Watch Dogs)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey, guys, I am not a native speaker of english and all mistakes here are mine. let me know if you find anything weird or idk feel like being a beta *wink wink, nudge nudge*

There’s a storm raging outside, but inside the Hackerspace things are warm and comfy — or as comfy as they can get considering their HQ is a basement mostly occupied by techy paraphernalia with wires and circuits poking out of the most improbable places. Tonight, most lights have been turned off, bathing the place in the pale light coming from the projector they set up near the rickety couch.

Wrench throws a bag of Cheetos at Josh, who is wedged between Marcus and Sitara on the couch as they wait for Ray to finish setting up the movie of the night: a Paranormal Activity sort of flick, Marcus can’t remember which one and it hardly matters. He’s there mostly for the cozy, family of choice feels than for the entertainment, really, so he’s good with whatever the others end up picking.

“All set!” Ray announces as the opening credits start playing. He takes the beer Wrench hands him and promptly moves on to do god-knows-what as the rest of them settle in for an hour and a half of bad jump scares and poorly written storylines. Ray usually refuses to actively take part in movie night, but Marcus knows for sure that in a few minutes he’ll start offering his input on the lousy special effects and poor acting. The man just can’t help himself.

And then Sitara will start arguing with him, of course. It’s just the way these nights go.

“M? Beer?” Wrench asks. Marcus nods, watching the masked anarchist out of the corner of his eye. The bottle Wrench hands him is so wet with condensation it almost slips between Marcus’s loose fingers once, when he first grabs it, and then a second time when, instead of perching on the arm of the couch or sitting on a nearby chair like a socially aware person, Wrench decides that to take a seat _on_ _Marcus_.

“Dude!” Marcus exclaims, moving his beer out of the way as Wrench stretches out on top of him and throws his legs on Josh’s and Sitara’s laps. The anarchist almost falls off when Sitara pushes his boots away with a disgusted groan, but refuses to get off the couch, so Marcus says, “Alright. Listen, I love you, man, but I’m not gonna risk losing an eye just because you don’t wanna sit alone. If you’re gonna be like that, at least take the spikes off.”

Wrench doesn’t miss a beat. “Shit, M, I’ll have you know I’m not that easy, ok? Gotta at _least_ buy me dinner first.”

Despite his words, he obediently sheds his vest. The offending piece of clothing falls to the ground with a metallic sound and Wrench settles more comfortably on Marcus’s lap, his right arm loosely wrapped around Marcus’s shoulders and boots obediently off people’s laps.

For all his protests, Marcus is in fact _very_ comfortable with the way Wrench is invading his personal space at the moment. Has been for a while, actually, which is just another way of saying they’ve been dancing around each other for a few months, Wrench and Marcus, flirting and joking and feigning innocence. It’s pretty clear that any minute now they’re going to fall head first into it, but neither of them has ever had a relationship quite like this — this trusting, this easy — and just standing there, right on the edge of it, is its own kind of thrill.

So Marcus pretends he’s wrapping an arm around Wrench in return just because it’s more comfortable to keep him close, it keeps the anarchist’s weight more against his chest than on his thighs. He lets himself sink into the couch, sink into the comfort of their bodies pressed close together. Wrench is warm and pleasantly heavy as he drinks his beer and chuckles at the movie; he smells faintly of deodorant, cigarettes and WD-40, which shouldn’t be pleasant, but has Marcus’s insides feeling all sorts of strange and wonderful anyway. Head harmlessly pressed against Wrench’s bony shoulder, Marcus almost can’t believe just how much he likes this chaotic creature in his arms, currently flinching in fear of-

Marcus squints at the movie.

“Dude, it’s just a door,” he coos, shaking with repressed laughter.

Wrench doesn’t argue with him. “I _know_! Why is it so creepy?”

“Well, it _is_ a horror movie, so it’s all about making mundane, everyday stuff seem creepy,” Sitara very reasonably offers, reaching into the bag Josh’s holding for a handful of Cheetos.

“Well, they’re succeeding,” Wrench complains. He’s tense against Marcus like he’s bracing for an attack, so Marcus rubs a soothing circle into the anarchist’s back and feels him relax a bit while still complaining, “I’m not sure I like this movie.”

“Oh, I’ll protect you from the big, scary draft of wind, you big baby,” Marcus promises, wrapping Wrench more securely in his arms. It’s supposed to be a joke, but Wrench offers no resistance at all and Marcus is _not_ going to complain when he’s got a lapful of, well, just the _biggest_ crush he’s ever had in his entire life.

When Wrench pushes his mask up to tip the last of his beer into his mouth, Marcus doesn’t even _blink_. The movies is completely forgotten, naturally, as he wonders for the millionth time what those pink lips would feel like if he decided to kiss his best friend right now. The roar of thunder outside the hackerspace becomes a muffled hum and Marcus is feeling pretty good about his chances until Wrench suddenly asks, “You done?”

Marcus blinks at him, startled out of his thoughts.

“What?” he intelligently replies. Wrench nods at the bottle in his hand.

“The beer. Did you finish it?” Marcus looks at his bottle and for a second he doesn’t even remember how it got there to begin with. “Here.” Wrench takes it from his hand, decides it’s not empty enough and drinks the last of it before leaning over the arm of the couch to put it next to his own bottle on the floor. It’s _probably_ not on purpose, but the way he moves makes Marcus suddenly very _aware_ of the pressure on his lap.

Marcus makes a small, strangled sound as Wrench starts to settle back against him.

Wrench pauses.

“Happy to see me, M?” he whispers, synthetized voice dripping with innuendo. Marcus doesn’t need to be able to see Wrench’s face to know he’s grinning.

“Shut up and watch the movie,” Marcus replies, refusing to let his embarrassment show. He’s a healthy young man, okay, Wrench doesn’t get to hold that against him, not when he’s very _deliberately_ making himself comfortable on top of him.

Marcus retaliates, then, by distractedly stroking Wrench’s inner thigh with one hand and rubbing small circles over the soft skin of his side with the other, fingers skimming over a sharp hipbone before slowly sneaking under the anarchist’s sweatshirt. Marcus gets lost in it a bit, in how he can _feel_ the shiver that runs through Wrench’s body when he first touches him there and then every shiver that comes after that one as he gently scratches the skin with his fingernails, teasing, raising goosebumps.

Wrench is not a small man by any means, but when he shudders and curls against Marcus like this, Marcus feels like he could scoop him up with one arm.

“You know, they only use those night vision cameras so that they can hide how much their CG sucks,” Ray unexpectedly supplies as if he hasn’t said those exact words the last five times they decided to go found footage for movie night.

“We are perfectly aware of that, Ray, but thanks for your input anyway,” Sitara dispassionately responds. “Josh, did you eat all the Cheetos?”

Night vision cameras or not, Marcus has no idea what is happening in the movie anymore. The hand he’s been keeping on Wrench’s thigh keeps sliding inwards and threatening to go up until Wrench has to pull his sweatshirt down with a warning growl.

He doesn’t ask Marcus to stop, though.

“What was that?” Josh unexpectedly asks.

“It’s the movie,” Sitara replies even though the movie has gone oddly quiet. Josh is not looking at the movie, however. He’s looking over the back of the couch, towards the stairs.

“No, it came from back there,” he insists. “Ray?”

“Hey, I’m over here,” Ray replies from the direction of Josh’s workstation. His heavy and slow footsteps come closer as he slowly says, “Is the movie getting to you?”

Marcus looks over his own shoulder, then, and at Ray. Bathed in the pale light coming from the projector, Ray looks almost like a ghost.

“No, I-” Josh shakes his head. “I definitely heard something.”

“Hope it’s not a poltergeist,” the liquid pool of angry anarchist on Marcus’s lap offers, the modulator in his mask barely able to hide the rasp in voice. No one seems to take it for what it really is, though, just Wrench being dramatic, but Marcus feels strangely proud of making Wrench sound like that just with a few touches.

He kind of wants to just go ahead and kiss Wrench, you know, the thought running on a loop inside his head. He’s kind of building himself up to it, no moment like the present, right, and why not here? Why not now? It’s not like he’s embarrassed and these people, Sitara, Josh, even Ray, they’re like family, so he leans a bit closer to Wrench, heart pounding in anticipation inside his chest, and pulls at the anarchist’s hoodie until he can whisper into his ear, “ _Can I kiss you_?”

For a second, Marcus thinks he’s made a terrible mistake. He holds his breath as Wrench goes very still and then the anarchist exclaims, “Fuck, yes!” and turns around so fast Marcus would definitely have lost an eye if the other hacker had been wearing his vest. Marcus has a second to realize Wrench has taken his mask off — and, wow, seeing Wrench’s face never gets old, those _eyes_ … ugh, his heart is just about to explode.

And then, with a loud pop that leaves a strange buzzing sound in its wake, the lights go out.

Marcus stares at the darkness in front of his face for what feel like an eternity. He can fell Wrench’s frustrated exhalation against his lips when the anarchist groans, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

The couch shifts as the others stand up and then three spots of light come alive one after the other as Sitara, Josh and Ray turn on the flashlights on their cellphones. Ray is saying something about going outside to check if the other buildings around them were affected while Sitara complains about those goddamn _rats_ eating their wires. Josh, however, has his flashlight pointed directly at Marcus and Wrench.

“Um, what are you doing?” he asks.

Wrench’s mask is firmly back in its place, but Marcus can see the dark blush spreading under it, reaching as far down as the base of Wrench’s throat.

“Well, I _was_ going to check my boy Marcus here for tonsillitis, but I can’t in this darkness, now, can I?” Wrench says, hysteria twisting his voice as he awkwardly climbs off of Marcus and reaches for his own cellphone. He sounds very tired when he asks, “Rats, you were saying, Sitara?”

“Yeah, I saw one last week just outside, the size of a dachshund, I swear.” Marcus reaches for his own cellphone and flicks on the flashlight just as Sitara adds, “I named it Lenni.”

Josh visibly shudders.

“Oh, fat-people jokes. Classy,” Wrench deadpans. Sitara’s eyes narrow.

“No! _Gross_ -people jokes!” she corrects him. “Marcus, can I borrow your jumper?”

Marcus acquiesces, but he ends up operating the jumper himself. They find no rats anywhere, just a whole lot of dust and, oddly enough, spray cans stashed into the crawlspace behind one of the walls. Ray says their building seems to be the only one affected by the power outage and Josh is just about to use his cellphone to break into the city’s electrical grid servers when the lights flicker back on just as unexpectedly as they went out.

Marcus glances at Wrench and can only estimate if the other hacker is looking back at him, double X’s on his mask, arms crossed. Gradually, Wrench relaxes, uncrosses his arms and makes his way closer to Marcus. Just as he reaches for Marcus’s arm, though, a loud crash near the lockers brings everyone rushing over. When they get there, there’s about half a dozen paint cans scattered across the floor, undoubtedly the source of the entire ruckus, but no sign of whatever made them come crashing down anywhere.

Sitara puts her foot on top of one to stop it from rolling away.

“Poltergeist,” Wrench wisely declares. The suspicious-looking dashes on his mask suddenly shift to exclamation marks, then, and he adds, “ _Cockblocking_ poltergeist!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super special shoutout to coolangelthesis who beta-read this chapter in addition to having the most awesome username EVER!

A couple of days after the whole blackout incident, Josh is still upset they never got around to finishing the movie. Wrench, on the other hand, has been surprisingly chipper since the whole ordeal. He seems to have fully embraced the Poltergeist theory and keeps going on about EMF readings and cold spots and as much as Marcus thinks the anarchist is mostly just messing with them, they  _ have _ torn the place apart looking for a logical explanation for the blackout, so Marcus is tempted to give Wrench some credit on that one.

Marcus also might have been having oddly specific dreams involving Wrench that make it hard —  _ heh! _ — for him to as much as look at the other hacker, so he’s not about to start contradicting him.

When Marcus next comes in, worn and tired in the aftermath of a small operation that had no right being as much work as it ended up being, he’s all ready for debriefing and enjoying whatever celebratory beer they have in stock. In their HQ, he finds only Sitara working on a huge poster which takes over most of the floor around her and Wrench quietly tinkering with a random household appliance on his workbench. Josh and Ray are nowhere to be found.

Unsure if Sitara even notices him coming in, Marcus makes his way towards Wrench with a curious, “Hey, what you got there?” 

Wrench immediately tenses up and whips his head around. The double O’s on his mask quickly shift into two carets when he sees Marcus.

Wrench shrugs. “Oh, same old. Just trying to rewire this bad boy, here.” He slaps a hand against the hard metal of what looks like a… toaster oven? Marcus chuckles quietly. He drops his bag on the floor next to the workbench and comes to have a closer look.

“Need a hand?” he offers, despite not having a clue what he’s looking at. Much like everything else regarding Wrench, though, Marcus just accepts the anarchist’s personal vendetta against domestic devices without questioning it.

“Well, not- really,” Wrench’s voice softens as he is slowly wrapped in a loose embrace, Marcus leaning right into his space, his front a line of warmth against the anarchist’s back. Wrench tries to be mindful of the spikes on his vest, but he can’t help but melt into Marcus with a contented sigh and a hopeful, “I could be talked into abandoning this project for the time being, however. For, you know, the right reason.” 

Marcus hums thoughtfully, heart thumping nervously inside his chest as fingers sneak up the front of Wrench’s sweatshirt, skimming over the soft skin of his lower stomach. Despite how close he and Wrench have been as of late, there’s still a flutter of nervousness in the pit of Marcus’s stomach every time he reaches for the anarchist, uncertain if his touch will still be welcome, and then a wave of warm relief when Wrench doesn’t flinch, doesn’t even blink, just accepts the closeness like he’s starved for affection. The fact that they haven’t actually kissed yet in spite of Marcus’s shameless flirting and Wrench’s NSFW innuendos should be driving them both up the wall, and it sort of is, if Marcus is being completely honest, but he also knows Wrench is a romantic at heart. He would love to wine and dine and serenade the hell out of Wrench if their current routine could accommodate it. As things are, though, he can hardly squeeze in a shower every other day, so he’ll take whatever he can get, at this point.

Narrowly avoiding being poked in the chin by Wrench’s vest, Marcus leans closer to the anarchist’s ear to whisper, “Could you also be talked into taking those spikes off, just a bit?”

Wrench responds with a shuddering, “For you, M?  _ Anything _ .”

The vest is lying on top of the workbench before the words are even out.

“That’s better.” Marcus approves, hooking his chin over the Wrench’s now spikeless shoulder and tightening his arms around his middle to pull them flush together. Wrench rests his arms on top of Marcus’s and peeks over his shoulder at the other hacker.

Marcus raises an eyebrow and conversationally asks, “So, what did this particular oven do to you?”

“Well, you know,” Wrench very vaguely begins, but he’s saved from having to elaborate his answer by the triumphant exclamation coming from the area Sitara has claimed with her posters.

“Yes! It’s done, guys! Oh, this is going to be a-mazing! Now, I just need to- Well. Do you think you could-” Sitara is babbling, gesturing wildly with paint-covered hands, and Marcus just  _ knows _ she’s about to ask them to do something, he can feel it, but then she suddenly pauses when she catches sight of them and her smile turns fond. “Ne-vermind,” she lamely offers, waving a hand at them and turning back to her work.

As she packs up her stuff, Marcus gently rocks Wrench in his arms and whispers into the anarchist’s ear, “Did we just get out of street art duty just because I’m holding you?”

Wrench chuckles inelegantly and whispers back, “I’m not sure, but maybe we should make out, just to be safe.”

Marcus is so on board with that suggestion that he’s pretty sure his brain short circuits for a second, so he pushes his nose into the crook of Wrench’s neck and just breathes him in for a second. “You have a beautiful mind, you know that?” he says.

“I’ve been telling you for months, M, I am but an underrated genius.” Wrench’s words are light-hearted and playful, but he sounds just a bit out of breath and, as Marcus presses a kiss to his neck, Marcus can feel him shiver. “Hm. That’s nice,” Wrench sighs, fingers trailing lightly over Marcus’s forearms almost like he’s unsure if he has permission to touch him back.

Marcus glances towards the entrance just in time to see Sitara climbing up the stairs, arms full of rolled up posters. She doesn’t say even goodbye, so he focuses on Wrench instead. More specifically, he focuses on making him shiver again under a daring open-mouthed kiss pressed into his neck.

“Shit, M,” Wrench hisses and, with a shudder, scoots back a bit further, all but grinding backwards into Marcus’s crotch. More confident now they’re alone, Marcus slides both hands further up Wrench’s sweatshirt, electricity zapping through his body at the feel of Wrench’s ribs under his palm. Wrench is at once incredibly soft to the touch and hard, made of wiry muscles and sharp edges and Marcus can almost see it, what he’d look like stretched out on a bed, shivering under his touch.

“Here?” Marcus asks, licking over a spot near the back of Wrench’s neck, just under his hairline. Wrench gasps, the soft hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Marcus chuckles to himself at the reaction, supporting most of Wrench’s weight as the hacker’s knees turn to jelly.

Wrench is not totally undone, however. He reaches for one of Marcus’s hands and pulls it down with a cheeky, “Here’s even better.”

Marcus holds his breath as Wrench pulls his hand towards his pants, but before Marcus can really touch him at all, a high pitched beep comes from the direction of the toaster-thingy Wrench had been messing with.

Marcus squints at it with confusion and more than a little bit of indignation, hand frozen half-way down. 

“What was that?” he asks.

“The computer, I think,” Wrench responds, letting go of Marcus’s hand as he leans to the side to check on his computer. “A torrent just finished downloading.  _ Illegal _ software, you know,” he explains, dramatic as if they haven’t both been downloading software illegally since they were pre-teens.

“It didn’t come from the computer,” Marcus argues, still eyeing the toaster oven.

“What are you talking about, of course it-”  _ BEEP _ , goes the toaster oven. Wrench startles, jumping in Marcus’s arms. “What?!”

Marcus takes a step back and Wrench goes with him, twin circles shining on the visor of his mask.

“Weren’t you rewiring it?” Marcus asks.

“Yeah, but…” 

_ BEEP-BEEP _ , the toaster oven goes with increasing urgency.

“Shit!” Wrench exclaims, pacing around the room as if looking for something. Marcus follows his movements with his eyes with a growing sense of urgency. 

“What?!” Marcus demands as Wrench crouches behind the couch.

“Dude, there’s no electricity in it! No batteries!” When Wrench stands back up, he’s holding a sledgehammer. “Okay, stand back, M.”

“What? Wrench!” Marcus tries to catch Wrench’s attention, tries to get him to stop and think for a second, but he know when Wrench gets like this the best thing to do is get out of the way, so he steps back as the other hacker approaches the workbench with the sledgehammer raised above his head. “Shit!”

Wrench pounding household appliances into silent piles of scrap metal shouldn’t be hot — well, shouldn’t be  _ this _ hot, anyway. But even as Marcus finds himself having to dodge a flying spring, his face is hot and his pants are becoming tighter by the second. After a few minutes, Wrench pauses, breathing heavily, the sledgehammer propped against one shoulder and a hand on his hip as he surveys the result of his efforts.

Then he looks up at Marcus.

“Hey, M.” Marcus just  _ knows  _ there’s something weird coming. Wrench takes a step towards him, all swagger and dumb bravado, and Marcus can’t help but feel ridiculous at how helplessly fascinated he is by the anarchist. “Is this turning you on?”

Marcus laughs, but doesn’t even try to deny it. Wrench sets the sledgehammer down on the floor with a dull sound and just leaves it there as he makes his way closer to Marcus.

“Do you want to give it a go?” Wrench nods at the abandoned hammer. Marcus shakes his head. As soon as Wrench is within reach, he pulls the anarchist into a loose embrace. He can almost hear the other hacker’s grin as he casually adds, “I do have another tool for you to play with, if you want.”

Marcus groans. He can’t believe that line is actually working on him. “ _ Seriously _ ?”

Wrench shrugs. One of his arms is looped easily around Marcus’s shoulder and he’s reaching for his mask with his free hand, lifting it just enough that Marcus can see the shit-eating grin on his lips. God, he  _ needs _ to kiss Wrench’s smile right off his face, yearns for it so fiercely he can almost taste it... but then he hears it again, a bit distorted, a bit muffled, but definitely there. 

_ Beeeeeep _ .

And of course Wrench hears it too. Faster than Marcus can really follow, the anarchist pulls out of his embrace and gets the sledgehammer back. Just as he lifts it up above his head, ready to smash whatever’s left of the toaster oven and anything that dares stand in his way, the entrance door slides open.

Marcus and Wrench both look at the stairs in time to see Ray calmly walking down, a six-pack of beer in one hand and a carton of Chinese food in the other. The older hacker freezes halfway down, takes one look at the two and goes, “I  _ don’t _ wanna know.”

_ Beeeeeeeeeeeep _ .

Wrench sets the sledgehammer down with a defeated sigh. “We need an exorcist.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about how long it took me to update this, I've been assaulted by plot bunnies I couldn't help but chase, but here we are, (somewhat) underway  
> all feedback is greatly appreciated <3

**Author's Note:**

> all feedback is greatly appreciated  
> happy holidays, everyone, and here's hoping for a better 2021!


End file.
